This got sent around. From the Beltway insider Nelson Report:
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Since Bader left for Brookings and private sector consulting, the heavy China load has been carried by Donilon, State's Kurt Campbell, with key starring roles by Sec. Clinton, DOD Sec. Panetta, and the President himself. Whether this "senior China person" serves at State or the NSC can be critical, given lines of communication and personal relations issues.
Richard Bush, former NIO at the CIA for Asia, former President of the US Institute on Taiwan, former House Foreign Affairs Committee China person, current China guru at Brookings...would be a widely popular choice with the additional virtue of making sense from any perspective, whether at the White House, State, or in Beijing.
Think also Brookings' Ken Lieberthal, former Senior Director for Asia in Bill Clinton's NSC, constantly back and forth DC/Beijing, prolific writer/advocate who would fill all the "senior China person" profiles.
Michael Schiffer? Extensive Obama Campaign experience, good record as a DAS at DOD, and more recently getting re-acquainted with the vagaries of Capitol Hill as the Asia guy on Kerry's committee staff. That's why we have him slotted-in for NSC Senior Director, given our "China person" premise.
Frank Januzzi? Enormously experienced Cap Hill staffer, especially on Japan, Korea and N. Korea, currently very happy as Amnesty International's DC rep, good record of bipartisan cooperation. Could do either State or NSC in the event he's asked."
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Your guess is as good as mine. But the two main choices for Sec of State on Huffpost today, UN Ambassador Rice and Sen Kerry, don't seem to have a whole lot of China experience. On the other hand, I would have said the same about Hillary Clinton and she's been a really good Sec of State. So what do I know?__________________
Daily Links:
- East Asia Forum: What Obama's Second Term Means for Asia
- Joseph Wu, well respected in the US, has been named the DPP's unofficial ambassador to the US
- Taiwan test-fires new "carrier killer" ship missile. As if the Chinese carrier were a threat to Taiwan. No doubt it will be good for killing other kinds of ships too...
- The farming and fisheries associations are sinkholes of local patronage politics. This article in TT the other day helps explain why.
- Huge capital outflows from China. Scary. And yet despite the shrill dreams of the China Cargo Cult, little of these outflows appears to be ending up here in Taiwan.
[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums! Delenda est, baby.
What about former Utah governor,former Ambassador to China under the Obama administration, & too-reasonable-to-survive-the-primary Republican Jon Huntsman? Huntsman is fluent in Mandarin, served as a Mormon missionary in Taiwan for two years, & later lived for one more year with his family in Taipei. He is considered a moderate & is widely liked even by many Democrats. Democrats & Republicans also doesn't seems to have major disagreement over foreign policy too. Certainly this is a less-probable choice compare to the like of Susan Rice & John Kerry but is definitely a possibility if Obama really want to show his sincerity to cooperate with the Republicans, who still control congress.
ReplyDeleteHuntsman is not likely because he already quit on Obama once to run against him. It would be poor management practice to give the man another shot
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